Freedom of Information Office
Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital
Aldermaston Road
Basingstoke
Hampshire
RG24 9NA
Switchboard: 01256 473202E-mail:
Date:19thNovember2012
Ref. No.: FOI 798
Mr Robert Jameson
By email:
DearMr Jameson,
Your request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
I am writing further to your request for information.
2005 / 2006 / 2007 / 2008 / 2009 / 2010 / 2011 / 2012 (YTD)BNH/RHCH
1) The number of Subject Access Requests received by the trust annually. / 1168 / 1103 / 1058 / 1073 / 1133 / 1095 / 1105 / 430/1329*
a. How many were fully complied with, within the 21 day NHS guidelines. / 585
(50%) / 581
(53%) / 776
(73%) / 622
(58%) / 368
(32%) / 419
(38%) / 638
(58%) / 171/345*
(40%/26%)
b. How many were fully complied with, within the 40 day statutory timescale / 1105
(95%) / 989
(90%) / 977
(92%) / 962
(90%) / 1012
(89%) / 987
(90%) / 954
(86%) / 333/704*
(77%/53%)
Please note that the figures provided from 2005 – 2011 are for those subject access requests received by the Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (BNHFT). From 9th January 2012 the Trust became the Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (HHFT) and now includes the Royal Hampshire County Hospital (RHCH) and Andover War Memorial Hospital.
The information above for 2012 has been split between Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital and Royal Hampshire County Hospital respectively. Please note of the 1329 requests received at RHCH, 463 of these had no date sent recorded and so the figures for complying within the 21 days and 40 days reflect the worst case scenario.
c. How many required "additional information" and were them completed within the 40 day statutory timescale
This information is not captured within general subject access requests and we are therefore unable to provide it.
The Trust also receives requests within its legal department. The information you have requested is not recorded in an easily identifiable and retrievable format; rather a file note is made against individual requests that further information is required in order to process the request. In order to ascertain whether requestors were asked to provide further details would encompass a manual search of all requests received. We estimate that this would cost more than the appropriate limit to undertake this detailed investigation. The appropriate limit is specified in regulations and for a NHS Foundation Trust is set at £450; this represents the estimated cost of one person spending 2½ working days in determining whether the Trust holds the information, and locating, retrieving and extracting the information for completion of the request as a whole. Consequently the Trust is not obliged by the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to respond to your request (section 12(1)).
For the purposes of calculating the estimated time to conduct such an investigation, the Trust has followed the guidance issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office (Requests where the cost of compliance with a request exceeds the appropriate limit, 20120927, version 1.1) which states that ‘when a public authority is estimating whether the appropriate limit is likely to be exceeded, it can include the costs of complying with two or more requests…’ and goes on to define it further by saying that ‘multiple requests within a single item of correspondence are separate requests for the purpose of section 12’. The Trust has therefore taken each of your questions as a separate request.
d. How many required "additional information" and then were formally discontinued by the applicant
Please see answer at c) above.
e. How many required "additional information" and then were informally discontinued by the trust due to the applicant not responding to the request.
Please see answer at c) above.
f. How many were refused before the 21 day point, and break down the reasons for refusal.
This information was not historically captured within the Trust’s records and we are therefore unable to supply this information for requests received up to December 2011.
This information is not specifically recorded, but since 9 January 2012 the Trust can recall the refusal of one request within 21 days which was due to inappropriate identification being provided.
g. How many were refused before the 40 day statutory timescale, and break down the reasons for refusal.
This information was not historically captured within the Trust’s records and we are therefore unable to supply this information for requests received up to December 2011.
This information is not specifically recorded, but since 9 January 2012 the Trust can recall the refusal of two requests within 40 days. Both the requests were refused on the grounds outlined in f) above.
h. How many were refused after the 40 day timescale, and break down the reasons for refusal.
This information was not historically captured within the Trust’s records and we are therefore unable to supply this information for requests received up to December 2011.
There have been no refusals to supply information after the statutory 40 day timescale since 9 January 2012.
2. Of the above SARs, please break down in percentages how many were for medical records, and how many in relation to other matters. This need not be annualised.
All of the above requests for information were for part, or all, or the medical record.
3. Of the above SARs, how many refused requests were instigated by a patients representative. This need not be annualised.
This information was not historically captured within the Trust’s records and we are therefore unable to supply this information for requests received up to December 2011.
This information is not specifically recorded, but since 9 January 2012 the Trust can recall the refusal of one request made by a patient’s representative.
4. Please provide sample copies of your "Refusal", "Additional Information" and "Letter of authority" letters or forms as required for each of the years in question and for each of the trusts.
The Trust does not have standard template ‘refusal’, ‘additional information’ and ‘letter of authority’ letters or forms. If such letters are required, they are drawn up for individual cases.
Please note that the Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (HHFT) came into effect on 9th January 2012 following the merging of the Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust.
This letter confirms the completion of this request. A log of this request will be held on a database held by the Trust.
If you are unhappy about the response you have received your first line of action should be to write to request that the Trust undertake an internal review of your application. A senior member of staff, who was not involved with your initial application, will undertake this review. If after this process you are still not satisfied with the response you receive from the Trust you can complain to the Information Commissioner at the following address:
Information Commissioner, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF
Yours sincerely,
Freedom of Information Office
Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust includesChairman: Elizabeth Padmore
Andover War Memorial Hospital, Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital Chief Executive: Mary Edwards
and Royal Hampshire County Hospital